Day 33 through 35, Mule town, great sheets, and a rest day in Leon

A promising start to the day
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Day 33 through 35; June 19^th through June 21st^h

El Burgo Ranero to Mansilla de las Mulas, to Leon, rest day in Leon

328km to Santiago, 624km from start

Distance: 20km, 19km

The Leon cathedral
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The blue morning sky of the meseta fooled us. Before heading out, I take any sign of clearing as an chance to pack away the rain gear and convert to shorts. This time I also convinced Marie. But within an hour, the gray closed in and the wind returned. We always say that St. James will give us the trip we can handle. These days we just wish he didn’t have so much confidence in us. We need to see sun and get warm pretty soon. It’s summer in Spain after all . . . .

By mid-morning, we got to the village of Reliegos about 6km from the end of the stage. There was a bar, we had some coffee and met an interesting fellow. He was a Swedish spiritual healer and aspiring country and western singer. Really. We learned a lot about both as we walked in to Mansilla de las Mulas. He was a good guy and we saw him again over the next two days.

Market in Leon
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Mansilla de las Mulas. Literally, Mansilla of the Mules. In the past, it was a place where pilgrims could hitch a ride into Leon. It was another town with promise: a walled city and nice historical churches . . . but still not ready for prime time. Development money is coming very slowly to the meseta. That night, we were staying in Albergueria del Camino. It was a hotel Marie and I had been discussing for several days. The guide book called it a chance to stay “in refined luxury”. Since it also hyped Mansilla as an elegant town, we knocked on the door a little skeptical.

But hey, it was great. A very modest hotel and restaurant with very nicely appointed rooms, great bed, and genuine major thread-count sheets. Marie in particular was delighted. During this trip, Marie has coped with almost everything and still smiled. She does not smile, however, when the bed linens are thin and too small for the bed. Today I’m her hero . . . I need to remember that!

We enjoyed the afternoon. We had dinner at our hotel (one of the better pilgrim menus) and met a family from Malaysia who was on the Camino.

The next day was a 19km walk into Leon. The guide book was very down on this stage, calling an urban swamp, dangerous and even recommended that folks take a taxi or bus to avoid it. We went ahead and did the walk and were glad we did. The day was sunny and warm and with the exception of a small section crossing over a busy highway, a reasonable day’s walk.

We had checked in to the Hotel Paris by noon. It was very central so it was easy access to the city.

Leon is a nice cosmopolitan city and a good place for a rest day. The cathedral is one of the best in Europe and has nearly 20,000 square feet of stained glass. There are several other nice churches. One, San Isidoro, has a largely intact Romanesque fresco ceiling that’s called the ‘Sistine chapel of Spain’. Combine that with a big tapas bar and restaurant district ‘el Humedo’ (‘the wet’) and you’ve got plenty of things to do. We also had time to have our clothes machine laundered for the first time in a month.

Villages: El Burgo Ranero, Villamarco, Reliegos, Mansilla de las Mulas, Villamoros de Mansilla, Puente de Villarente, Arcahueja, Valdelafuente, Puente Castro. Leon